Retired & Roaming

It was Gail’s birthday yesterday – 29 again – and we decided to revisit the Da Vinci restaurant in Nai Harn.

The first  and only time we’ve eaten at Da Vinci previously was about a year ago when we were staying in Chalong. Now we’re in Kamala, it’s almost an hour’s drive and therefore has to be worth it!  Last time, we were very impressed with the place – not just the food, which we reckoned was the best Italian food we’ve had outside Italy, anywhere, but also the general ambience of the place – relaxed, good service, the balmy evening breezes of the al fresco dining, good Italian music – magical.

So how did the place perform a year on? – an acid test, particularly in Thailand where things have a habit of slipping.

I’m pleased to report that Da Vinci was every bit as good as on our first visit. The food was superb and all the other boxes listed above received ticks in the right places as well. It was quieter than our last  visit – it was a Sunday evening and the season is winding down a bit. But that made no difference, the restaurant still had the same ambience. The waitresses are as before: young, attractive Thai girls who have been well-chosen and well-trained; they were attentive without being intrusive, and very charming.

The food? We’d had lunch elsewhere so we weren’t going for the full monty. We started by sharing a rocket salad with parmesan cheese – generous portion and very fresh. Don’t know what their source is, but it’s good.

Gail then had one of the specials: Rolled beef tenderloin with sauteed potatoes and carrots – very tender beef and delicious. I had Saltimbocca Da Vinci which was three pork slices each cooked with parma ham and brie – melt in the mouth! It came with sauteed potatoes and broccoli. Again delicious. Top marks for taste and presentation.

For pud, we each had our favourite pannacotta with passion fruit. I always reckon pannacotta is a good test of a chef, having had a few burnt ones elsewhere, and these were perfect.

Wine can be expensive in Thailand so we stuck to a glass each of the house white to start with –  Matte Bianco, an Italian blend that was slightly smoky but tasty; the alternative was a Jacob’s Creek chardonney. We then tried glass each of a Jacob’s Creek shiraz/cabernet blend which was excellent with our choices of main course.

The price overall, including a bottle of sparkling water and a 7% VAT charge , but no service charge, was THB 2795. Expensive compared with eating out in the local Thai restaurants, but as value for money, it was superb. And hey, it was a special occasion – your wife is only 29 once a year!

Da Vinci has an English and Italian management, while the head chef, John, is Thai. The combination works perfectly. The English manager, Mark, called by the table concerned that a toad hopping along under the table might be a bother! – all part of the ambience was our view!

I’m very glad we made the two hour round trip – we’ll do it again for special occasions, for sure. I’ve also revised my opinion on how Da Vinci compares with the rest. It’s not only the best Italian restaurant we’ve eaten in outside Italy, it beats most restaurants in Italy (that we’ve tried) too!

I didn’t take any photos, but there are plenty on their site

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David General, Phuket, Useful Stuff

It’s January 2011 and we’re back in Phuket after a fabulous month in Hong Kong. The sun is shining, there is a breeze wafting over the balcony – blissful!

A few updates on accommodation. Our friends Barry & Lin recently returned from the UK hoping to spend three months here booked into the same Phuket Garden Home they have used before and which we used until we moved into our own apartment in Kamala. The booking for PGH was no problem and because of the huge range of accommodation available here now and a quieter tourist season, the price was lower. But so were the standards! They arrived to find that the room they had requested and which the manager had confirmed had been let to someone else. The alternative they were given was in a noisy spot closer to the bar and was frankly filthy. No attempt had been made to clean it, there was extensive mold on the bathroom and kitchen wall, the loo was dirty and the floor everywhere dirty. Even though they made a fuss, no cleaner was forthcoming. They also found the restaurant has closed so there is only a bar service. Not good.

The great thing about PGH was always that it was pretty and relatively quiet. The rooms were never wonderful, but they could be made OK; the service was often sloppy but that could be ignored. It had a good pool with soft, attractive surroundings. It still has and I wouldn’t say don’t go there, just be prepared to roll up your sleeves, either to do your own cleaning or to set about the manager who definitely needs a severe kick up the rear end. A lot of what I wrote about the place in the post under Places to Stay still applies (but the prices are much lower), but I don’t think it would no be my place of choice if I were looking for somewhere long-term. It’s a pity because with the injection of a bit cash and common sense, the place could have been and could still be very successful. I’ve spent a total of eight months of my life there and I feel a soft spot for it. But we all move on.

We helped B&L look around for somewhere else, looking again at some of the places we’d checked out three years ago. Of these, the closest was Best Mansions on the Lower Chao Fa Road right by the Chalong Gym and Fatty’s restaurant. It’s well signposted and behind the restaurant Da Franco. The immediate impression, compared to PGH, was good. It has the same sort of ambience – chalets around a pool, but there were staff available (not just the cleaners like PGH! ), the staff were in uniform and the place was generally clean. The rooms are like many in that they are more hotel style (one of the great things about PGH was that it had a separate living room) – a large bedroom with a fridge, a reasonable bathroom and a kitchen area that had even less equipment than PGH – a sink and a cupboard, not even a microwave. We’d rejected it before because if you want to work, there’s nowhere comfortable to sit – there’s a verandah, but in the evening, the mossies would probably be a problem. At 12k THB per month, it ain’t bad, but there are limitations.

We checked out one other relatively new place on the Rawai Road from Chalong Circle: Le Piman. Very nice place – 19 chalets around a pool each with a spacious living room and separate bedroom. Very pretty resort with a good sized pool. Downside: too expensive – they charged (high season) 2k THB per night including breakfast and 48k THB per month, excluding breakfast!!!! Amazingly, the place was full. There are frankly much cheaper alternatives that give the same.

So we end up at the condos were we live where there are many apartments also for let. It all comes under the Trees Residence in Kamala, but the place comprises two separate condo areas – Trees and Zen Space. The price quoted was good and a deal was struck. I’m not quoting prices since it’s worth contacting the place direct to get a current quote – it seems to be fluid! Check it out.

We found one other brand new place between Trees and the town called G1. It’s a six storey block of mainly studio apartments with two very smart and large one bedroom penthouses on the roof (6F) The penthouses seem good value – 35K per month, but at 25K per month, the studios are expensive and like a large, well-fitted out hotel room. There are no balconies. G1 has a small pool on the roof with an infinity edge that gave me the heebie-jeebies! Below the infinity edge is a ledge, not very wide, and beyond that a fall of 6 floors! It’s an accident waiting to happen and I wouldn’t let kids near it (or tipsy adults!).

Of course there are hundreds of places around; it all depends on what you want. For longer lets, there are loads of village houses in Kamala and other places. They won’t have pools, but the beach isn’t far away. The lets tend to be longer, but it’s always negotiable and the prices can be good – 10-13k per month for a two bedroom place is about right. You pays your money …

David General, Phuket, Places To Stay

I’ve just looked at the date of my last post and realised that it was back in February. Where has the time gone? There have been a number of distractions this year and somehow over the summer months when we’re attending to the garden in Italy, blogging recedes from the mind. However, not for the first time, I am intending to be a more regular contributor to my own blog!

After the last post, which was while we were in Phuket, we moved onto to Kenya for a magical seven weeks  both up-country and on the coast at Mtwapa for a month. It was here that the alternative distractions that hit R&R productivity really kicked in – I have been writing a novel for a while and the soothing sound of the waves breaking on the beach a few feet away from where we were staying got the creative juices flowing. They are still flowing – the book ain’t finished yet, but it’s coming on. In the meantime, Gail has finished her book – a children’s book called ‘Patrick’s Birthday Message’ – which I was also involved with, helping her to  computerise the illustrations. More on all that in another post.

So with my book and Patrick,  and a visit from all the family to Tuscany in July time has been flying by.

We returned to Phuket in November to move into our newly-finished apartment in the hills behind Kamala  (sea views, soft breezes moving the balmy air and very noisy cicadas: idyllic!) and spent three weeks sorting furniture before heading up to Hong Kong for a month, which is where this post is being written.

Rather than spending our month here in a hotel, this time we explored the possibility of a serviced apartment and have ended up in Aberdeen on the south of Hong Kong island in the excellent Ovolo apartments. The room is small but a very creative design and large windows have maximised the space. I’ll be writing a post on the place shortly.

Meanwhile here’s a nighttime shot of the view from the bedroom area looking up Aberdeen harbour.

The real reason for writing this post was to get moving on the blog again and to say just how much we are enjoying being back in this wonderful city again. It’s the same every time – you get off the plane in one of the most efficient airports in the world, your arrival is seamless and friendly at immigration (ours is helped by being permanent residents and therefore merely having to swipe our ID cards and offering a thumb for a print reading), pick up your luggage and by the time you’re on the way into the city, you feel like you’ve never been away.

On the Buses

We use public transport all the time in Hong Kong. It is amazingly efficient and inexpensive; the buses seem to run everywhere, and so these days does the MTR – the underground railway network. With an Octopus card in your wallet/pocket book/pocket/purse, payment is easy. And these days you can use the card to pay for things in many other outlets; it’s not just for travel. A good alternative to big buses are minibuses which ply  even more routes than buses and just as cheaply, If you are having to make a journey where the buses/minibuses are more difficult, or too many changes are required, there are always taxis. The flagfall is currently HK18.50.

To give an example of the very low cost of it all, we recently made a trip from Aberdeen to Tai Wo in the New Territories. That involved a bus to town (Admiralty), then trains on three lines, so two changes. The whole journey took an hour and the total cost was HK$20 (€1.93 or US$ 2.57!).

Aberdeen

A little warmer than its namesake, ‘Little Hong Kong’ as it’s known in Cantonese, is a bustling town on the south of Hong Kong Island. It has a natural harbour formed by the island of Ap Lei Chau, onto which over the last thirty years, the population of Aberdeen has spilled from the boats to new housing developments. I imagine that more Aberdeen people live on the island than in old Aberdeen. The harbour is always busy, with innumerable fishing boats arriving or departing, depositing their catches in the wholesale and retail fish market that runs along the main channel, while the traffic that runs up and down the Aberdeen Praya Road never seems to cease.

The town itself has all the usual shops, including a good Park’n'Shop supermarket that seems to have most things. Like everywhere in Hong Kong these days, people are friendly and helpful. There is a promenade that runs along the harbour from where tourists can take sampans for a harbour tour, sampans to one of the floating restaurants, or ferries to the Lamma island or Po Toi island. Or they can simply wander and enjoy the ambience. Cyberport is up the road with a good cinema.

David General, Hong Kong

I’ve just returned from a session with an English guy who offers all of the above and more.

My problem  is long-term tinnitus – not bad or over-intrusive, but it’s there. I’d been looking at alternatives, homeopathy in particular, on the internet and came up with a practitioner not far from here. I called him and he gave me the honest but bad news that homeopathy doesn’t really work for most type of tinnitus. But had I tried acupuncture? Yes, I had, but not for that. So I went along for a session and discovered the very relaxed and friendly Garnett Symonds who chatted a bit and then tried some dry needle acupuncture. I don’t think it has had much effect although it does seem a little less focused, if that makes sense. He then gave me some neck traction which again hasn’t cured it but it’s really made my neck feel great. He reckoned for a man of my advanced years, I have good neck movement, but it’s now even better.

So, if you’re in Phuket and have a problem that you think could be helped by Homeopathy, Osteopathy, Chiropractic or Acupuncture, look him up on the internet or give him a call. He’s in the Rawai area.

Garnett B Symonds

www.garnettsymonds.com

info@garnettsymonds.com

076-388348

Mobile: 081-6072343

David General, Phuket, Useful Stuff

Our review of PGH, our home-from-home in Chalong, Phuket, has been under ‘Places to Stay’ for some time now. I’m merely adding this shortest post of all time to draw your attention to the fact that the article has been updated with the latest prices (lower than before) and a few general comments.

That’s it apart from saying that when we do eventually move to Kamala, we shall miss PGH!

Further revision dated 24 January 2011 – see comments under Phuket update; 8 January 2011!!

David General, Places To Stay